It is well known in motor vehicles to restrain an occupant in the seat by a lap belt disposed across the lap and a shoulder belt disposed diagonally across the chest.
It is also known to provide a passive lap and shoulder belt system wherein the outboard ends of the continuous-loop belt are mounted on the vehicle door. The inboard anchor belt end is retractably mounted on the vehicle body inboard the seat and the outboard anchor belt end is connected to the continuous-loop by a junction ring which is slidable along the continuous-loop to divide the loop into varied length lap belt and shoulder belt portions to fit the particular seated occupant.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 57,605 by Lloyd W. Rogers, filed July 16, 1979, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,177 discloses a load locking junction device for coupling a continuous-loop belt having ends mounted on the vehicle door with an anchor belt retractably mounted at the inboard side of the occupant seating position. The junction device includes a frame having a central elongated aperture defining spaced apart first and second elongated load bearing walls. The continuous-loop belt is slidable over the first wall to divide the continuous-loop belt into a lap belt portion and a shoulder belt portion. The anchor belt extends through the aperture and has a pin engaged in the end thereof to enlarge the anchor belt end portion for simultaneous engagement against the second wall and the continuous-loop belt so that the belts are coupled together and maintained in engagement with the load bearing walls against migration toward the ends of the elongated aperture. A spring acts between the frame and the pin to normally hold the anchor belt in spaced relation from the continuous-loop belt and thereby permit free adjusting movement of the continuous-loop belt through the frame. The imposition of oppositely directed occupant restraining loads on the continuous-loop belt and the anchor belt during emergency induced vehicle deceleration causes the enlarged anchor belt end portion to forcefully clamp the continuous-loop belt against the frst load bearing wall whereby the restraining lengths of the lap belt and shoulder belt portions are fixed relative one another.
A characteristic of the aforedescribed junction device is that the resolution of forces imposed upon the frame by the anchor belt in one direction and the lap belt and shoulder belt portions of the continuous-loop bent in the opposite direction cause the frame to tilt to an angular position in which a corner of the frame tends to catch on the clothing of the seat occupant during travel of the junction device across the occupant upper torso during opening movement of the door.